Anode for nonaqueous secondary electrochemical cells

Abstract

The negative electrode or anode for a secondary electrochemical cell comprising a mixture of graphite or "hairy carbon" and a lithiated metal oxide, a lithiated mixed metal oxide or a lithiated metal sulfide, and preferably a lithiated metal vanadium oxide, is described. A most preferred formulation is graphite mixed with lithiated silver vanadium oxide or lithiated copper silver vanadium oxide.

Description

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention[0002] The present invention generally relates to the conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy. More particularly, this invention relates to a novel anode material formulation comprising a carbonaceous material and a lithiated mixed metal oxide, a lithiated metal oxide or a lithiated metal sulfide for the negative electrode of a rechargeable, nonaqueous electrochemical cell. In that respect, the use of graphite and a lithiated metal vanadium oxide as an anode material mixture in conjunction with a cathode active material in a lithium ion electrochemical cell has several advantages. These include increased anode density resulting in higher capacity for the intercalation of lithium, lower initial irreversible capacity, excellent reversibility of lithium doping and undoping, improved cell end of discharge cycle indication, and the prevention of negative electrode copper current collector corrosion prior to initial charging of the cell in compar...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] The object of this invention is to improve the performance of lithium ion secondary cells. Accordingly, the negative electrode or anode comprises a mixture of graphite or "hairy carbon" and a lithiated metal oxide, a lithiated mixed metal oxide or a lithiated metal sulfide, and preferably a lithiated metal vanadium oxide. A most preferred formulation is graphite mixed with lithiated silver vanadium oxide or lithiated copper silver vanadium oxide. This anode active mixture produces advantages in lithium ion secondary cells not known in the prior art including the prevention of corrosion of the copper current collector prior to initial cell charging, improved cell end of service indication, high capacity for the intercalation of lithium, low initial irreversible capacity, and excellent reversibility of lithium doping and undoping in the anode electrode.

[0013] In secondary electrochemical systems of the present invention, the anode or negative electrode comprises a mixture of at least a first and a second anode materials capable of intercalating and de-intercalating the anode active material, such as the preferred alkali metal lithium. The first anode material is a carbonaceous material comprising any of the various forms of carbon (e.g., coke, graphite, acetylene black, carbon black, glassy carbon, etc.) which are capable of reversibly retaining the lithium species. A "hairy carbon" material is particularly preferred as the carbonaceous material due to its relatively high lithium-retention capacity. "Hairy carbon" is a material described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,928 to Takeuchi et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference. Graphite is another preferred material. Regardless of the form of the carbon, fibers of the carbonaceous material are particularly advantageous because they have excellent mechanical properties which permit them to be fabricated into rigid electrodes that are capable of withstanding degradation during repeated charge / discharge cycling. Moreover, the high surface area of carbon fibers allows for rapid charge / discharge rates.

[0031] The secondary electrochemical cell of the present invention further include a nonaqueous, tonically conductive electrolyte. The electrolyte serves as a medium for migration of ions between the negative and the positive electrodes during the electrochemical reactions of the cell, and nonaqueous solvents suitable for the present invention are chosen so as to exhibit those physical properties necessary for ionic transport (low viscosity, low surface tension and wettability). Suitable nonaqueous solvents are comprised of an inorganic salt dissolved in a nonaqueous solvent system.

Problems solved by technology

This lithiated metal vanadium oxide material displays very high initial capacity, but suffers from poor capacity retention upon cycling.

However, copper oxides do not provide as high of capacity as the metal vanadium oxide materials.

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